sound of silence

my voice has virtually been non-existent since monday evening and while the lack of speaking voice should not have prevented me from writing (since they are absolutely unrelated), it sort of feels like being unable to speak in the real world has likewise hampered my ability to write here.

either that or i'm just a lazy cow.

in any case, allow me to regale you with pics taken of my attempt at parasailing. as i said before, it was an experience i absolutely loved, and no regrets having spent my hard-earned money for fifteen minutes of flight.

[ready]

[get set]

[go]

p.s. i so wish i took my camera up there with me as the view was absolutely spectacular! while tita celia took a video of me while i was up in the air and during my descent, the boat was pretty noisy and all she was saying was, "pababa na si roxanne" over and over again, which got boring after a minutes, haha! on the other hand, up in the air was absolutely quiet and being the talkative person i was, it wasn't long before i was chatting it up with God thanking Him not only for the blessings that manifested themselves in the weeks leading up to the trip but for the natural bounty below me.

p.p.s okay, fine, i also prayed to God that the rope won't break!

♫♪♪ take me down to the paradise city ♫♪♫♪

while mina is raging outside my bedroom window, i've still got that fabulous white beach on my mind. i mean, who wouldn't right? and i'm not even a beach person.

that boracay trip came to me via cash cash pinoy. yes, i'll admit it: i have a healthy relationship with vouchers and when they put up for sale vouchers for P15,000++ for a 3-days and 2-nights trip to boracay for two with airfare, airport transfers, hotel, breakfast, and a dinner a zuzuni, well, i wasn't about to let go of the chance.

not only was it pretty affordable, i have never been to boracay ever. yep, how's that, right?

thing was, i have zero idea about boracay geography so i didn't mind that the voucher was for this hotel located on diniwid beach. my officemate told me that diniwid = nami and i knew that nami = upscale so i assumed that hotel on diniwid automatically meant upscale.

it wasn't bad, but let's just say remote is the more apt term.

in any case, we stayed at this hotel with hardly a lobby to speak of.

but not only did it have two double beds (which was fun especially if you still sleep in a twin bed at the ripe old age of 34), each bed also had three pillows each. *sigh* have i told you that i book hotels on agoda based on how fluffy the pillows are on the pic? well, if not, then consider yourself informed. one look and this almost felt like heaven.

well, almost. i must admit that it was unfortunate that the side tables didn't have lamps so if i wanted to read a book till i fell asleep, it would mean keeping my aunt awake as well. and the view, ugh, the view was of someone's backyard. hence you understand why no pics were taken, haha!

after i surveyed the room (with strict instructions to my aunt not to mess the beds up till i had gotten my shot!), i checked the bathroom out which is usually where i get disappointed. but, with a rainshower head, bidet, and uber strong water pressure, well, let's just say that they got uber-high points in their survey on the bathroom aspect!

i just don't understand who the heck thought of putting the towel on the bathroom floor as "design" ... was it to signal that the floor was clean? and take note that nope, it wasn't the towel that was meant to be a bathmat (it was there, but it wasn't on the shot). that's "art" for you!

oh, if i haven't mentioned it yet, we stayed at microtel boracay. and let's just say it was ♥.

thank you, microtel. it was amazing staying with you. the staff was lovely, the hotel was lovely, the ice machine was lovely. and while the not-red tocino for breakfast threw me in for a loop, i enjoyed your hospitality.

will work for new shoes

so there we were all set for hi-top (this grocery in qc where there's an entire section for items on 50% off) when i complimented my boss on her shoes. then she mentioned the magic word: i got them on CMG where the shoe prices have not only been slashed but they're on buy one, take one as well.

uh-oh ... shoes on sale. sign me up!

i think i must've tried at least fifteen pairs of shoes ☺ boo, cause some of the pairs didn't come in my size (particularly this brown i-will-eat-you-for-breakfast-if-you-don't-see-things-my-way pair that i was super in love with) but in the end, i came home with three (i split the B1T1 with another officemate ... the beribboned flats on the top of the heart isn't from CMG but from janylin last week. i've used it for walking and commuting that they're sorta giving up on me. and i haven't even paid for them on my credit card! boo, janylin, boo!).

sometimes i can't help but think that all this shoe shopping is a disease (i even wanted to buy this bag, but i held back, if only cause i'm saving up for this fino bag that sent my heart a-flutter, or this other bag i had been planning on getting for my 35th birthday which is six months from now) but since i'm a lawyer, i can fully justify each purchase. for example, while this weekend is the first four-day weekend in MONTHS, i actually did a lecture yesterday. so i've more or less earned enough money to pay for the shoes in the pic above. good job me (pats self on the back).

as for that bag though, well, that's a different matter altogether!

t minus 35 days and counting

it's funny how fast news flies in this office. while the change has been pending for some time now (like a month and a half), only five people were in the know, my boss, my big boss, and three of my friends who were sworn to secrecy. monday, i told my boss, wednesday morning, i spoke with my big boss, and wednesday afternoon, i made the announcement to my department (that's the entire legal department of my company up there). by the time thina forwarded my resignation letter to the HR department yesterday afternoon, all the them knew already, not to mention the steady stream of people who've come up to me to basically say, "i've heard something about you."

while i will not pretend and claim that the change isn't keeping me awake at night from all of the excitement, i also cannot ignore the fact that from day one, this office felt like home. and from the corporate ignoramus that my boss hired last year, i'd like to think that i've gained skills that i would not have learned otherwise (skills which helped me get the new job, no doubt about it). this job also taught me how to deal with an entire office of people (my entire career has been spent in small tight-knit organizations. and while i did work in the government, working for a justice meant that you were basically a small office of ten or so people) especially with things like bullying, competitiveness, and cliques.

don't get me wrong - all the bad stuff above notwithstanding, the past 11 months (and i'm sure the next month as well) have been a blast. i'll always have fun memories of my boss ensuring that she gets me at least one red ribbon empanada during board meetings lest this one director (who happens to favor it as much, if not much more, as i do) leave me with zero empanada, memories of all the 50% off goodies at hi-top which is a trike (or a long walk) away from work, or the lunch break runs to trinoma to satisfy the shopping monsters that lurk deep within. this company. i hope they'll also remember fun times with me (although i hope they'll forget the time when i emceed the office christmas party and ended up being "best in smile" since i hardly said anything!) and that when they think of me in the future (like when it's deathly quiet cause my constant chatter isn't around to break the silence), they'll think of someone who was always ready with a smile, someone whom they could approach for help all the time, and someone who despite her short tenure, made a difference.

i've 35 days to go before i make the big jump. in between now and then, there's a couple of things i have to accomplish work-wise. but more importantly, between now and then, i hope to build great memories with everyone in this pic, just so that when they think of me in the future, they'd remember not the girl who left so soon, but the girl who made the most of her 365 days.

boracay views

while i am neither a travel blogger nor a photographer, i do enjoy visiting new places and taking pictures to document the experience. here are some of the things that caught my eye while on vacation

{diniwid beach}

we stayed at microtel boracay which was located beside nami. it didn't have the most pristine of beaches, nor did it have the fun that white sand had to offer, but it did have lovely quiet evenings for pretend contemplative thinkers such as myself.

{microtel boracay poolside}

i am not that much of a beach person so i totally enjoyed the serenity to pool offered me on our first night there. while probably all the registered guests were out somewhere, my aunt and i had a glass of margarita each and discussed life and what nots by the poolside.

{white beach from the plane}

admittedly, even the non-beach person in me was enthralled by the sand that never gets hot, the variety of people in various states of undress (and overdress, haha!), and the wares and services being offered.

{painted startfish magnets}

since it's part of our culture to bring home pasalubong all the time, i was happy i chanced upon these starfish magnets. they're pricier than your usual boracay ref magnets but since they're (seem to be) not as common as the usual pasalubongs, i got fifteen of these - one for me and the rest for select friends.

{one, two, three, four, five, six ... yep, six in one motorcycle!}

we were waiting for our ride at jonah's shake (yep, i couldn't NOT go there} when this family passed us by loaded on one motorcycle. truly, only filipinos can defy that law of physics which states that no two things can occupy the same place at the same time. imagine, a family of six on a motorcycle that typically rides two at most.

{fire dancer with amazing abs}

no trip to boracay will be complete without watching the now-typical fire dancers. we chanced upon a group of three across boracay regency who managed to elicit and couple of wows and thunderous applause from the crowd.

{local kids at diniwid beach}

while white beach has been converted into the hub of commercialism, diniwid remains to be your neighborhood beach. on our second morning, a couple of local kids invaded the beach and revealed that the water truly is an "attractive nuisance" even if it's something that you see every single day of your life.

p.s. pics taken using my lumix fh2 camera. i'd like to think that the pictures from the boracay trip are slightly better than those taken when i was in cebu. maybe it's cause i've finally figured out a thing or two about the camera settings.